American Filmmakers Can't Let Go of The 1950s

Americans still romanticize the 1950s in every way possible today. Maybe it was the economic ingenuity of the time that people keep fresh in their minds, maybe it was Elvis' hips, or, maybe it's because some of the values and traditions are kept alive by passionate individuals.

In that era, one popular way people chose to entertain themselves was by going to special movie engagements to see films that hadn't been released yet while they were on a tour of sorts, then called a roadshow. Seating was limited, as well as the screen time. Movies would be taken on the road before their wider release, and the screenings themselves were known as classy events, punctuated by gowns and tuxedos.

This was what director Quentin Tarantino, an ardent film enthusiast, tried to recreate when he released his film The Hateful Eight last year.

He shot the movie on 65mm film with the intention of releasing it on 70mm, which isn't a very popular way to distribute a film widely. So, he said, "we could do a roadshow version of such, where we go in a hundred screens filtered throughout America."

And that's exactly what he did.

Why does one shoot on 65mm to screen in 70mm? Why is choosing to do so a death wish if you're looking for a wider release? What is the big deal anyway? Is it all just a marketing ploy?

While I can definitely try to answer these questions for you, Samuel L. Jackson and the crew of The Hateful Eight do a much better job in this video which was featured in Cinema Blend almost a year ago.

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70MM projection gives you an image twice the size of standard 35MM film. This gives everything on the screen a much more epic scale. 70MM was used previously for classic epics like Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia. In those movies, the setting was a major part of the film, and thus it was important that it really be seen. The same is true with the Old West look of The Hateful Eight. In order to create the proper setting, the audience needs to be able to see it. Kurt Russell said it was actually difficult to get used to what the camera was capable of seeing. Everybody involved seems to be truly impressed with how visually stunning this film will be.